Small Looms Large

Grafton Senior A Leader On Field, In Classroom

YORK — Grafton High's senior class took a trip to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday and Matt Small had to decide whether to go or stay behind for football practice.

The choice was a no-brainer.

Small, who will start at inside linebacker and offensive guard in the Clippers' playoff game at Powhatan on Friday, was in gym on Wednesday after school.

"Missing the trip was a sacrifice, but it really comes down to commitment," he said. "My first commitment is to this team."

See a pattern? Small used the word commitment twice. If any trait defines the 6-foot, 210-pound senior, commitment is it.

His obligation to the team starts in the weight room, where he spent 21/2 hours a day, four times a week between football seasons. He said that some Fridays were pretty lonely, just him and a couple of teammates.

But the work has paid off. Small's 300-pound bench press tops the team. He leads the team in knockdown blocks and is second with 117 tackles.

Small takes his responsibility as team captain seriously. When the Clippers (6-4) put in a sub-par effort in beating Jamestown 20-14 last Friday, he gathered his teammates afterward and told them they needed work harder.

"I said that if we came out with the same attitude in practice this week as last, we're going to get beat severely," he said. "I told them that Powhatan got the top seed in the playoffs because they come to play, and that I hoped we came back to practice more focused."

Clippers' coach David Walton said Small has influenced his teammates in ways that neither he nor his assistant coaches could have. "A lot of times, kids will listen to their peers more than they'll listen to us," Walton said. "When we say something, a kid might think there's a tactical reason behind it. When another player says it, they know it comes from the heart.

"Matt is a throwback to the kids who went out and played for the love of the game. He's a great leader."

Small is just as determined off the field. His cumulative grade-point average is 4.15, and he hopes to parlay his academic and football achievements into an appointment to the Air Force Academy.

The self-described "Air Force Brat" has dreamed of flying jets since he was 4, when his father took him to an air show at Davis Monathan Air Force Base near Tuscon, Ariz.

An appointment to West Point would be OK, too.

That would allow him to learn to fly helicopters, which has proved to be a dangerous job in Iraq the past two weeks. But for Small, choosing to do so would be as easy a decision as choosing to skip a class field trip for football practice.

"Going into harm's way is the kind of sacrifice you must make to defend your country," he said. "I really do love this country because I've seen how people in other parts of the world live. I went with a church group to Southeast Asia, and it was the biggest eye-opening experience of my life.

"That made me appreciate that America is worth fighting for and dying for, if necessary."